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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: I Was Wrong
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Warm sunlight filtered through the ornate windows of a corridor.
There, I was locked in a fiercer battle than ever before.
"Let us wash you, miss."
Three mature women dressed in maid uniforms gazed down at me, their eyes sparkling.
"I'm fine...! I can wash myself!"
I pressed my back flat against the door of the space I'd been told was the bathroom, thrusting my hands out toward the maids.
It was a threatening warning not to come any closer, but the maids showed no signs of giving up.
"No. You're still too young to wash properly!"
"I can wash myself! And I'm not a little girl."
Meeting her gaze—those eyes gleaming with the burning desire to bathe me—I swallowed hard.
But no matter what, this absolutely could not happen.
My lingering male pride wouldn't allow it, and if they bathed me, their hands would touch every inch of my body.
I knew my mind wouldn't hold up.
"Fine... alright. But will you at least allow me to have you fill the bathtub with water?"
In the end, my firm resolve won out, and the maids raised their hands in surrender.
"If that's the case..."
After the fierce negotiation, I cautiously stepped aside from the door.
The maids filled the tub with regretful looks, as if they had no choice, then quietly withdrew.
Left alone in the bathroom at last, I let out a long sigh of relief.
I worked to calm my tense body, then took a deep breath.
Amid the rising steam, a faint fragrance tickled my nose.
"...It's different."
I blankly looked around.
Everything was incomparable to the orphanage's dingy, rusted bathroom.
Pristine white tiles seamlessly covered the floor without a speck of grime, and ornate decorations adorned the walls, adding a touch of luxury.
Even the tub the maids had filled was extraordinary—at least five times larger than the one at the orphanage.
"...Just in case."
I thoroughly locked the bathroom door, then carefully approached the tub and dipped my hand into the water.
"Whoa..."
Warm water enveloped my fingertips, slowly spreading its heat.
For my child-sized body, it wasn't too hot, nor lukewarm—just the perfect, comfortable temperature.
At the orphanage, the water was always so cold I had to rush through my baths...
With water this warm, I'd want to bathe five times a day.
Enchanted by the cozy embrace of hot water for the first time since reincarnating, I was completely captivated.
And that was why.
The moment I slipped into the tub, I unknowingly drifted off to sleep.
When I opened my eyes again.
Roselia was glaring down at me with a fierce look.
"I need to punish those maids."
Roselia muttered lowly, her face etched with deep displeasure.
Punishment from the black villainess herself—it was sure to be anything but ordinary.
"It's not their fault! I... I insisted on washing myself."
"You're a problem too. Falling asleep in the tub like that—what if something had happened?"
Her reprimand turned toward me.
Her visibly angry expression puzzled me.
Now that I thought about it, something felt off.
Why was I the one getting scolded?
Falling asleep in the tub wasn't great, sure...
But did that mean I deserved a lecture from someone else?
Family might be one thing, but Roselia and I were total strangers.
Not wanting to provoke the black villainess's ire, though, I bowed my head.
"I'm sorry... It was my first time with warm water, and it felt so good that I..."
Was it my imagination? For a fleeting moment, Roselia's shoulders seemed to tremble.
With no reply, I cautiously lifted my head to gauge her expression.
Roselia looked at me with eyes full of complex emotions, then scowled and turned her head away.
"...If this happens again, I'll bathe you myself. Remember that."
"Next time?"
Next time? Anyone hearing that might think I was staying here for good.
"What, you planning to go back to that orphanage?"
"...Shouldn't I?"
Even though I was out now, my well-being was still under the orphanage's protection.
With the Director as my guardian, I'd have to return there eventually.
And if my memory served, I'd signed the protection papers she gave me.
In short, the Director was now my legal parent in every way that mattered.
"Didn't you ask to leave that place?"
But Roselia eyed me like she couldn't comprehend.
"Yes. Thanks to you, Countess, I could finally catch a break. But... if I don't go back, there'll be trouble."
"Because you're an orphan?"
"...Yes."
I wasn't scared of the Director. She posed no threat to Roselia anyway.
But my guardian was still the Director.
If she reported it to the Empire, Roselia could end up branded a kidnapper.
No matter how powerful Roselia was, she couldn't openly defy imperial law right now.
"...Thank you so much for helping me. I'll definitely repay you somehow."
I expressed my genuine gratitude.
Black villainess or not, right now, she was my savior from that horrific Director.
"Hmph."
Roselia drummed her fingers on the table, then rose with a highly dubious smile.
"Follow me."
"Pardon...?"
I stammered in confusion, but got no answer.
Instead, she opened the bedroom door and stepped out, nodding slightly as if to say come along.
I hurried after her.
The place Roselia led me to was deep in the mansion—down long corridors, then a long flight of stairs.
It felt like a deep underground chamber.
Utterly unlike the warm bedroom I'd just left.
Damp air, the sound of water dripping down the walls, the dark, cold scent of stone filled the space.
If I had to describe it, it was like a dungeon.
"Promise me? You won't tell anyone what you see here."
Roselia looked down at me with cold eyes and spoke lowly.
The atmosphere suggested refusal would mean I'd be locked up immediately. I nodded quickly.
"I... I keep my promises."
"Good."
Following her down the dim path, an iron-barred door soon came into view.
Under the faint candlelight, two shadowy figures were vaguely visible beyond the bars.
And those two faces were all too familiar to me.
"Be-Bella!"
The woman locked inside lunged forward the moment she saw me.
Her disheveled hair, bloodless cracked lips, and red, bloodshot eyes.
But what caught my eye first was her one empty sleeve.
Though utterly changed, there was no way I wouldn't recognize her.
"...Director?"
"Ah, Bella! I missed you so much... I really missed you!"
She smiled at me with a tenderness she'd never shown before.
An eerily radiant smile bloomed on her face.
"I-I was wrong. From now on, I'll do everything right. I'll even make that vault you wanted... and support whatever you do without holding back!"
She clutched the bars with one hand, pouring out words without pause.
In the absurd situation, I froze, unable to speak.
"P-Please forgive me too!"
As I blinked in a daze, another figure approached the bars.
He was a man. Not as familiar as the Director, but a face I could never forget.
The merchant who'd shoved that fraudulent contract at me and taken everything.
"P-Please! I was just following this woman's orders! I had no ill intent!"
He clung to the bars, shouting desperately just like the Director.
"What?! How dare you shift the blame to me?!"
The Director twisted her face in rage at his words and screamed.
The merchant snarled back at her no less fiercely.
"Am I wrong!? You told me to do it! Why else would I go to that poor village!"
"This... How dare a commoner talk back to a noble...!"
"Ha, that's what you're worried about right now? In this situation? You're insane."
"You damn bastard... Just wait till I get out. You won't walk on those legs."
"Try it, you bitch! I'll shove a knife down your throat first—"
The merchant's crude curses never finished.
One of his fingers exploded in an instant, flying through the air and rolling outside the bars.
Red blood sprayed, splattering the Director's face.
"Gaaahhh!"
"Kyaaahhh!"
The dungeon echoed with their horrific screams, reverberating off the dim underground walls.
"One more word. I'll cut off the rest of your fingers."
Roselia's eyes coldly fixed on them.
At her icy voice, the merchant bit his tongue to stifle his groans.
"Tch, no filter in front of a kid."
Roselia clicked her tongue briefly, then turned to me with a bright smile as if nothing had happened.
"What do you think?"
She tilted her head slightly as she asked.
"Pardon...?"
Roselia pointed her slender, long finger at the merchant.
"A man rife with fraudulent schemes. One day, found dead by the riverbank, riddled with stab wounds from a victim's blade. Deceased."
Her finger slowly shifted to the Director.
"A woman guilty of repeated embezzlement, despising commoners with her elitist mindset. One day, she meets her end in revenge, discovered as a cold corpse in the mud."
As Roselia's emotionless declarations continued, the merchant and Director grew paler by the second.
"If you have a better story, tell me."
There was no playfulness in her voice—only earnest expectation of my input.
"I-I..."
"Oh, and there's one thing you're mistaken about."
Roselia quietly extended her hand.
I reflexively flinched and squeezed my eyes shut.
But contrary to my fears, she gently grasped the back of my neck and lifted me to eye level.
"You might think you'll go back to the orphanage..."
A faint smile bloomed on her lips.
Within that lovely smile swirled an incomprehensible, sticky emotion.
"Even if you throw a tantrum and demand to return, I have no intention of letting you go."
"Pardon...?"
"So be a good girl and stay by my side."
Perhaps.
I might be in a far more serious situation than I'd realized.
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